Monday, January 13, 2025

2025 Character Creation Challenge, Day 13: Bolts, for Tiny Wastelands

Tiny Wastelands cover. Three survivors roam a landscape of ruins and dust in triangle formation, weapons at the ready.
source: RPGGeek.com
My first postapocalyptic RPG was TSR's Gamma World, and its goofy mix of human and animal mutants set expectations that later, less fanciful games were never able to satisfy. I'm pleased to say that for Tiny Wastelands such a setting is, if not the baseline, at least an included option. And it's an option I shall be exercising.

The default game revolves more or less exclusively around humans and mutated humans. Character generation is basic Tiny d6 stuff: you pick an archetype, three traits, a weapon group and mastered weapon, come up with a belief (called a Drive here), get some gear and cash and you're ready to start scavenging. 

Adding mutated animals to the mix is a little tricky; they form their own set of archetypes based more or less on size and/or ecological niche. Combining animal archetypes with human career-type archtypes is possible, and the rules recommend using the lower of the two hit point values to start.

So let's do some mixing. In Gamma World games I've played an octopus, a Galapagos tortoise, and even a ten-foot-long, twelve-inch-thick earthworm barbarian with arms to hold a sword and shield. I don't plan to get quite so wacky here; I'll start by taking a basically humanoid chassis and putting a different mammal's skin over it, in particular a rabbit. The animal Archetype is called Fast Mutated Animal: smallish, quick, and often sneaky. That gives me 4 hit points and the heritage Trait Quick, which grants an extra action each turn that i can use to move or evade in combat. (I cannot, however, select Tough or Diehard from the general trait list.)

To that I'll add the Fixer career Archetype: the character who tinkers with the stuff scavengers bring in until it functions again--though not necessarily in the way it originally did. The Fixer gets 7 Hit Points, but that'll be overridden by Fast Animal's lower 4. They get the Archetype Trait Mechanic, which lets them Test at Disadvantage to boost an item's Usage Rating by one point. (Usage Rating quantifies the wear and tear of regular use on an item that's probably already pretty old and beat up--the higher the rating, the longer the thing will hold out.)

The rules don't tell you whether the extra Trait you get from a second Archetype counts toward your three independent Traits; I'm going to assume it doesn't and the whole table will get five Traits altogether. There are two Traits that complement Fixer very nicely: Blacksmith, which (once per day) lets you restore a Usage point to an item with a Test rolled at Advantage; and MacGuyver, which lets you jury-rig inventions for one-time use. Add Nimble Fingers (Advantage to pick locks, pockets, etc.) and you're got a solid jackrabbit Fixer.

Okay, time for a Weapon Group. Light Ranged weapons are this rabbit's best bet, and an automatic pistol shouldn't be beyond her capacity to maintain as a mastered weapon

Other gear begins with ten Clix (the local currency) and a Survivor's Kit containing bedroll,  poncho, lighter, belt pouch, 50 feet of strong cord, a week's worth of rations, and a cracked electric lantern with 72 hours left on its charge. Add some basic hand tools for about 5 Clix, and we're almost ready to roll.

Our rabbit mechanic needs a Drive, and I have one that seems suitable for someone in her position: this community needs me, and I need them. And a name, which is Bolts. (Pun not orignally intended, but I'll take it.)

And that should put us in position for a statblock to wrap it up.

Bolts, Mutated Rabbit Fixer
HP: 4
Species Archetype (Trait): Fast Mutated Animal (Quick: extra action to move or evade)
Career Archetype (Trait): Fixer (Mechanic: 1x/day, Test at Disadvantage to boost Usage rating by 1)
Weapon Group: Light Ranged    Mastered Weapon: Automatic pistol
Other Gear: Survivor's kit, hand tool set
Drive: This community needs me, and I need them.
Traits:
Blacksmith (1x/day, Test with Advantage to restore an item's Usage Rating by 1)
MacGuyver (create single-use items to grant Advantage on a Test, Advantage on identifying unknown items)
Nimble Fingers (Advantage to pick locks, palm small items, etc)

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